Bushfire Season and MTB: Fire Bans, Burns and Trail Closures by State
On a forecast Catastrophic fire danger day, assume your trail is shut: Victoria, for one, closes national parks and state forests outright. On Total Fire Ban and Extreme days, many parks and plantation forests close too, and between bans, hazard-reduction burns knock out individual trail sections for anything from a day to most of a week. MTB trail closures on fire danger days are decided by whoever manages the land, so the fastest way to know if you can ride is to know your park's land manager and check their alert page the night before.
That's what this guide is for. Below is how the fire danger rating system turns into locked gates, how planned burns work, and the one official page per state worth bookmarking before summer kicks in.
Quick answers
- Catastrophic day: expect closures almost everywhere in bushland. Don't go.
- Total Fire Ban or Extreme day: plenty of parks and forests close (all of ForestrySA's forests in SA shut on ban days, for one). Others stay open with fire trails shut. Check the night before.
- Planned burn: usually a defined area for 1–4 days, plus smoke. Trails nearby can close at short notice if the weather changes.
- Where to check: your land manager's alert page (table below), plus the state fire agency for bans and ratings.
- Facebook is faster, the alert page is binding. Clubs often post first, but the land manager's notice is the one rangers enforce.
How do fire danger ratings trigger MTB trail closures?
Since 2022 Australia has used a single four-step scale: Moderate, High, Extreme and Catastrophic. Ratings are forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology with each state's fire agency, and they're issued in the afternoon for the following day. That timing matters for riders. If you're planning a dawn lap, the call on whether your park opens was probably made at about 5 pm the day before.
A Total Fire Ban is a separate legal declaration. It usually lines up with Extreme or Catastrophic days but not always, and it's usually declared district by district, only occasionally statewide. Queensland doesn't use the term at all; the Queensland Fire Department declares Local Fire Bans for all or part of a council area.
Here's how the ratings translate on the ground, roughly:
| Rating | What it usually means for trails |
|---|---|
| Moderate | Open. Normal riding. |
| High | Open almost everywhere. Some remote parks start posting warnings. |
| Extreme / Total Fire Ban | ForestrySA's plantation forests close on ban days. Many national parks shut walking tracks, fire trails and singletrack. Council reserves vary. |
| Catastrophic | Bushland parks and state forests closed in most states. Urban reserves may stay open. |
Why close a bike trail when nobody's lighting anything? Two reasons. Riders deep in a forest on a hot northerly are hard to find and hard to evacuate, and a single rider with a mechanical can need a ranger and a vehicle at exactly the moment both are needed elsewhere. Then there's the ignition risk itself: car exhausts on dry grass at the trailhead, a cigarette at the carpark. The closure covers the whole site, not just the trail.
Victoria's land managers are blunt about the Catastrophic call. Parks Victoria's Catastrophic closure page says DEECA and Parks Victoria will close parks and forests, including state forests and national parks, and adds that some parks are regularly shut on Total Fire Ban and Extreme days as well. It also warns you may not see a sign at the gate. On 9 January 2026 every Parks Victoria park in a Catastrophic district closed for the day.
What happens to trails during a hazard-reduction burn?
Planned burns, also called hazard-reduction burns, prescribed burns or fuel-reduction burns depending on the state, are the other half of bushfire season for riders. They run when the weather is mild and stable: mostly autumn and spring in the south, and through the cooler dry months into spring further north. In other words, they land on exactly the weekends you'd most like to ride.
A typical burn notice gives an area in hectares, a start date, and a window of a few days. When we checked Parks and Wildlife Tasmania's alerts page on 17 October 2026, it listed a burn of about 134 ha in the Meehan Range Nature Recreation Area from 20 October, expected to take two to four days. That's the reserve the wider Clarence MTB Park network sits on, so anyone heading to the eastern shore that week should look at the notice before loading the bike.
Three things to know about burns:
- The start date is "weather permitting". Burns get pushed back a day, or brought forward when a good window opens. A notice from last week isn't a guarantee for this weekend.
- Closures can outlast the flames. Burnt stumps smoulder and trees drop limbs for days. Forestry Corporation of NSW has said in past fire seasons that burnt forests stay closed longer specifically because of falling trees.
- Smoke travels. Even if your trails are outside the burn area, the air can be rough for a hard climb. If you have asthma, check the burn map before you check the forecast.
Where to check closures, state by state
This is the bookmark list. Each link is the land manager's own alert or closure page, not a news story.
| State | Land manager | Check this page | Bans and ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | NPWS (national parks) | NPWS alerts list | RFS ratings and TOBANs |
| NSW | Forestry Corporation (state forests) | forestrycorporation.com.au/visit | RFS, as above |
| VIC | Parks Victoria | Catastrophic closures | CFA, VicEmergency 1800 226 226 |
| VIC | Forest Fire Management Victoria (state forests, burns) | FFMV planned burns | CFA, as above |
| QLD | QPWS | Park alerts | QFD fire bans |
| SA | ForestrySA | ForestrySA bike riding | CFS, 1800 362 361 |
| WA | DBCA | Park Alerts System | Emergency WA |
| TAS | Parks and Wildlife Service | PWS alerts | TFS total fire bans |
| ACT | Parks ACT / ACT Government | Parks ACT alerts | ACT ESA |
New South Wales
NSW has two big land managers that riders deal with, and they behave differently. NPWS runs the national parks and state conservation areas, including Garigal National Park (60 trails on the site) and the Illawarra escarpment country behind Kembla (28). On Total Fire Ban days in late 2025, NPWS shut walking tracks, fire trails and MTB singletrack across several Sydney and Illawarra parks while keeping some picnic precincts open. The alerts list lets you filter by park and shows a plain Open or Closed status, which is the quickest check there is.
Forestry Corporation manages the state forests, where plenty of club-built networks live. Its own releases point to the visit page for the statewide closure list. Note that the "Park Fire Bans" NPWS runs over summer (Blue Mountains and nearby reserves have one from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027) are about campfires and solid-fuel stoves. They don't close trails on their own.
Victoria
Parks Victoria parks like Lysterfield and the You Yangs follow the Catastrophic rule above. State forest country, where DEECA is the land manager (that includes Forrest in the Otways), shuts on Catastrophic days too, and planned burns are published through Forest Fire Management Victoria. Councils make their own calls: local press reported Warburton's parks closed for a Total Fire Ban in February 2026, so check Yarra Ranges Council before heading to Warburton Bike Park on a hot day.
Queensland
Most of south-east Queensland's big networks are QPWS land: Daisy Hill (60 trails), Nerang (67) and Parklands (67), plus Smithfield up in Cairns. Burns are the bigger factor here than bans. QPWS posts each one as a park alert with dates, the tracks affected and a "reopen when safe" line; in September and October 2026 alone it posted burns closing tracks in Lamington, Tully Gorge and Tumoulin. On 17 October 2026 there were no alerts listed for Daisy Hill or Nerang.
South Australia
SA has the clearest rule in the country. ForestrySA's bike riding page says its forests close to the public on declared Total Fire Ban days, and that includes Fox Creek Bike Park and the Mount Crawford forest that Kersbrook sits in, plus Kuitpo, home of Bells Gully. No exceptions, no partial openings. ForestrySA bans fires on its land from 1 November to 30 April, and the CFS issues Total Fire Bans by district, so the Mount Lofty Ranges forecast is the one Adelaide Hills riders care about.
A note on numbers: ForestrySA describes Fox Creek as having about 50 km of singletrack, while the site lists 17 trails. Both are right. One long trail is still one row, and our count is trails, not kilometres.
Western Australia
DBCA manages the Perth Hills and South West forest networks, including Kalamunda Trails (83 trails) and Wooditjup near Margaret River (37). Its Park Alerts System has categories for park closures, road closures, trail closures and diversions, and the Munda Biddi. DBCA has closed whole groups of Perth-area parks on severe fire danger days before; past closures have taken in John Forrest National Park and Lane Poole Reserve. Shire-declared Harvest and Vehicle Movement Bans are aimed at machinery and off-road vehicles. They're a strong hint about the day's conditions even though they aren't aimed at pushbikes.
Tasmania
Tasmanian networks sit on a patchwork of tenure. Trevallyn and the Meehan Range are PWS reserves, Hollybank is in Sustainable Timber Tasmania production forest, and plenty of trails are council-run. The PWS alerts page names "fires or high fire danger" as a closure reason and lists planned burns with hectares and expected duration. Total Fire Bans come from the Tasmania Fire Service.
ACT
Canberra riders have history here. Stromlo Forest Park closed at 12.30 pm on 16 January 2014 for a Total Fire Ban, and Kowen Forest was on the list of reserves shut on fire ban days during 2019–20. The Mount Stromlo MTB Park (83 trails) and Kowen Forest (117) are both ACT Government land. The Parks ACT alerts page points to the Emergency Services Agency for fire-ban road closures and upcoming burns, and the ESA homepage shows a four-day rating outlook starting today. On 17 October 2026 it read Moderate through 20 October.
A pre-ride routine for hot days
Once the forecast starts showing 35°C plus a northerly, run this the evening before:
- Check the rating and ban for your district on the state fire agency page. Ratings land in the afternoon, so check after 5 pm.
- Check the land manager's alert page for your specific park, not just the region.
- Check the club's socials for anything the alert page hasn't caught up with, such as a burn that slipped a day.
- Have a plan B on lower-risk ground. Urban reserves and council parks sometimes stay open when big forests shut. Our map view makes it quick to find something closer to town.
- On the day, keep the emergency app on. VicEmergency, Hazards Near Me, Emergency WA and the others push warnings for where you are, not just where you live.
If a closure catches you at the gate, turn around. Riding a closed forest on a Total Fire Ban day isn't a grey area. You can be fined for entering a closed area, and if something goes wrong, nobody's out there looking for you.
Bushfire season MTB FAQ
Can you ride mountain bike trails on a total fire ban day?
Sometimes. A Total Fire Ban doesn't automatically close every trail, but many land managers close on ban days. ForestrySA forests in SA always do, and NPWS and ACT reserves often do. Check your park's alert page the night before rather than assuming it's open.
Are national parks closed on Extreme fire danger days?
Some are. Parks Victoria closes some parks and picnic areas on Extreme and Total Fire Ban days and closes parks and forests broadly on Catastrophic days. NSW NPWS often shuts walking tracks, fire trails and singletrack in high-risk parks while leaving main visitor areas open.
How long do trails stay closed after a hazard-reduction burn?
Burn notices usually give a window of one to four days. Trails can stay shut longer if stumps are still smouldering or burnt trees are dropping limbs. The land manager reopens them once a ranger has checked the area, and the alert page updates when that happens.
When is bushfire season for mountain bikers in Australia?
In the south-east, roughly October to March, with fire danger periods declared district by district and the hottest stretch usually December to February. Queensland's risk peaks earlier, through late winter and spring. Planned burns run outside the peak, mostly in autumn and spring, which is when riders are most likely to meet one.
What's the fastest way to check if my local MTB park is closed?
Check the land manager's alert page (NPWS, Parks Victoria, QPWS, ForestrySA, DBCA, PWS Tasmania or Parks ACT), then the state fire agency for that day's rating and ban. Club social pages are often quicker but aren't official.
Before you load the car
Work out who manages the land at the parks you ride most, bookmark that one alert page, and make checking it after 5 pm a habit from November onwards. It takes thirty seconds and saves a wasted drive. If a burn or ban closes your usual spot, our guide to where to ride after rain has the full per-state land-manager table, and the 2026–27 events calendar is worth a look too, since race weekends can be cancelled on fire ban days.